UConn Not The Only Established Program Having Rough Season

HOUSTON – UConn has some company in this difficult season. If the Huskies are destined to play in the NIT – and after losing 70-68 at Houston on Sunday, they will have to improve to get there – they will find some familiar foes.

Syracuse, Michigan, Pittsburgh, Memphis, UCLA and Florida are some of the perennial NCAA Tournament teams that, like UConn, are left out of current bracket projections. It has been that kind of year in college basketball, a year of shifting power within and among conferences, and the defending champion Huskies, who began the season in The AP Top 25, aren't the only ones taking a fall.

After losing to the Cougars, despite getting 26 points over the final eight minutes from Ryan Boatright, the Huskies are 11-9, sixth among 11 teams in the American Athletic Conference with a 4-4 record. Houston (9-12) had lost its first eight games in conference play.

The AAC could have as many as four teams in the NCAA Tournament – Jerry Palm, for CBSSports.com, and Shelby Mast for USA Today have Tulsa, Temple, Cincinnati and Southern Methodist in their bracket. ESPN's Joe Lunardi has Tulsa, Cincinnati and SMU. However, the league's low RPI ratings make it difficult to gain ground. Tulsa, 9-0 in AAC play, is a double-digit seed, and might have to play in a first-round game to reach the 64-team field, according to various bracketologists.

UConn is off everyone's radar, of course.

Even if the Huskies, 106th in RPI Monday morning, win all 10 remaining games, they would not have the numbers to get into the tournament as an at-large pick. The Huskies' only chance is to win the AAC tournament in Hartford March 12-15 – this is always possible, but with the recent performances against Tulsa and Cincinnati, and the 1-3 record against Tulsa, Cincinnati and Temple, the Huskies have shown nothing to indicate they could run such a gantlet, even at the XL Center. They have 10 games to get ready for last chance weekend.

Well, the best thing to happen to the Huskies on this Cincinnati-Houston trip was that they happened to have their charter flights in and out of Hartford perfectly timed with the snowstorms. Not all of us were quite so lucky. But their season is shot now. At this rate, they will have to play a...

Well, the best thing to happen to the Huskies on this Cincinnati-Houston trip was that they happened to have their charter flights in and out of Hartford perfectly timed with the snowstorms. Not all of us were quite so lucky. But their season is shot now. At this rate, they will have to play a...

(Dom Amore)

"We've just got to try to keep getting better," coach Kevin Ollie said. "I still believe in these guys and we'll fight to the end of the season. Every game I'm going to fight and keep believing. But you can have all the faith in the world, but if you don't have work with the faith, it's dead. So we've got to keep working and having faith and anything can happen."

The Big 12 and the Big East are in line to get as many as seven teams in. Within conferences, Syracuse (14-7) and Pitt (14-8) are struggling for wins in the loaded ACC, but have chances to get quality wins between now and the end of the season. Michigan (13-9) has had some shocking losses, notably to New Jersey Institute of Technology, Illinois (14-8) and Minnesota (14-9), which won the NIT last season. Florida (12-9), which lost at home to UConn on Jan. 3, is having a rough season, as is UCLA (13-9).

HOUSTON — The Huskies' bench got shorter on Sunday. Junior forward Phil Nolan, who strained his right hamstring at Cincinnati, was not available.

"It happened at the end of the first half," Nolan said.

While Nolan did not provide a lot of offense, he gave the Huskies a chance to get their starting...

HOUSTON — The Huskies' bench got shorter on Sunday. Junior forward Phil Nolan, who strained his right hamstring at Cincinnati, was not available.

"It happened at the end of the first half," Nolan said.

While Nolan did not provide a lot of offense, he gave the Huskies a chance to get their starting...

(DOM AMORE)

How unusual are the times? Yale and Harvard could be playing the most important men's college basketball game of the season in Connecticut this weekend in New Haven. Yale (4-0) leads the Ivy League, which sends its regular season champ to the tournament; Harvard is 3-1.

With so many big names on the outs, the NIT could be beneficial to the Huskies, who have a young team, and much of it returning next season. But as defending national champs, it's not the kind of finish Boatright, a senior, would want, or make for the kind of March excitement to which Connecticut fans are accustomed.

Then, again, the way the Huskies played on the recent road trip through Cincinnati, a 70-58, loss, and Houston, any postseason consideration a month from now would represent progress. The Huskies never led in either game and two late surges in which Boatright, who scored 53 points, did all the scoring is all that made the final scores respectable. Boatright again made the AAC honor roll, but the Huskies at this late date are still looking for a second scorer, let alone a third and fourth, with neither Daniel Hamilton, Rodney Purvis nor Amida Brimah developing into a consistent scoring threat.